A Last Encounter
by chang-raeleeismyhero
Summary: Anakin and Padme have one last meeting after his turn to the dark side. Episode 3.


Disclaimer: Star Wars and characters are not mine. I got inspired by a song, so I just wrote it. Hope you like it, this is my first fanfic.  
  
A Last Encounter  
  
Padme Skywalker sat staring out the window of the Senate Building in her private quarters. A lone tear trickled down her cheek. Unable to keep her regal calm anymore, a torrent of emotions and tears appeared on her face. She collapsed to the bed sobbing hysterically. A small word could be heard escape her lips, "Ani." The word was so full of anguish and hurt, that it broke the heart of the woman standing quietly at the door. Sabe had been standing at the door, watching the entire scene. It was terrible to see her friend in such pain. She quietly entered the room and placed her arm around the former queen. The moment she did so, Padme pulled her friend to the floor, wrapping her arms around Sabe's neck, still sobbing uncontrollably. Sabe held her friend for a long time as she exhausted all the sobs that she had kept locked inside her for so long.  
  
"I miss him, Sabe!" she cried out. "I want him back, I don't care what he's done. I just want him back!"  
  
"I know Padme, I know," Sabe soothed. "I know you miss him, but you have to stay strong, you have children to live for."  
  
"What good will it do, as soon as they're born, I have to give them away! I'll never see them grow up! They won't even know they're father! What a good man he was, until…" She broke into a fresh wave of tears for the lives she was carrying and the lives they would lead that she would not know.  
  
Sabe just held her, feeling completely helpless to relieve her friend's pain. She understood what her friend was going through but there was nothing to do. Her anger at Anakin grew as she watched Padme's suffering. He had caused all of it, if he had never left, none of this would be happening. The galaxy would not be in turmoil if he hadn't turned! EVERYTHING WAS HIS FAULT! "Padme, I hope you don't blame yourself, if he had just"  
  
She was cut off by an angry glare from Padme's red eyes. "Don't talk about him like that, don't be angry at him. It's NOT Anakin doing these things… it's someone else; not the man I married, not Obi-Wan's apprentice, not your friend. The darkness took him over. He tried to fight it. It is my fault. I should have seen his inner battle and helped him. He would have listened to me, I know he would. If I hadn't been so blind." Sabe had no idea what to say to that. Padme obviously felt strongly about what she had just said.  
  
"Padme, you can't blame yourself, he made the choice. You have to move on, if not for yourself, for your children. If what the Jedi say is correct, they can change what they're father started. Be strong Padme." Sabe hugged her one last time, then left a pensive Padme, still sitting on the floor.  
  
Hours later, she still sat there, in exactly the same position. "She's right." She stood up quickly and disappeared into the bathroom. Five minutes later, she emerged, eyes no longer red, appearance returned to normal. She looked up and stopped dead in her tracks. She quickly recovered her composure and stated, "Hello, Darth Vader, can I help you?"  
  
"So you have accepted the truth, Padme," he said with a sneer.  
  
"I have accepted that you have taken over the man I love and have killed him." They stared at each other for a long time. Finally, she asked why he had come.  
  
"I am here to kill you as commanded by my master."  
  
"I'm sorry, but I cannot allow that to happen, and I know you would never do that to me, Ani." She had called him by her husband's name, a man she knew was in there, somewhere.  
  
"That is not my name!" As he yelled this, he withdrew his lightsaber, now an ominous red instead of the usual blue. It hissed to life, and he held it up, as if ready to strike.  
  
Padme took a few steps forward and said, "What happened to us Ani? Why did you leave?" A flicker was seen in his eyes as they momentarily turned into the warm, blue eyes that usually looked out from that face she loved so much. He looked stunned, and with a question in his voice asking for forgiveness and understanding from the woman he loved, said, "Padme?"  
  
She walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace before pulling back slightly, and kissing him, letting him know her answer. Showing all the feelings behind the statement in her eyes she said, "I love you Ani, I always have, and I always will, no matter what happens." With that, she turned and left the apartment. He stood there a few moments, with that stunned look still on his face before deactivating his lightsaber. He looked around and then down at his lightsaber. He stared at it for quite some time. When he looked up, his eyes were hard once again, Anakin gone. He activated his lightsaber and began slashing wildly at anything and everything in the room. He stopped suddenly, turned his eyes to the door, then paused, looking over the room. After smiling rather disturbingly, he headed for the door in his long, swift strides, and exited the apartment.  
  
Outside the door, Padme heard the silence, then the sudden hiss of his lightsaber, and the loud noises that came from her possessions being destroyed. Knowing now that Vader completely controlled her beloved Anakin, she put her head in her hands and cried. He did still exist in that monster somewhere, but buried far too deep to reach. She once again cried for him, that he would never be the father he should be, for herself, for her children, the mess her life had become, and the knowledge that the next time she saw him, if she ever did, Anakin might not be there to save her. She knew she had to leave now before Vader exited the room and found her there, putting herself, and her children, her Ani's children, at risk. With that thought, she raced down the hall with her head still in her hands. Her retreating thought was that she needed to find Obi-Wan. He was her last hope. He would protect her and her children. He had to, even if it was from there own father. She cried harder and ran faster out of the building.  
  
"She got away, my master."  
  
"How could she have escaped with only you there?" Emperor Palpatine asked, knowing the answer, but wanting him to admit his failure, making the hate in him stronger.  
  
"The weaker part of me took over momentarily, she walked out in his presence. I assure you, this will never happen again. Anakin Skywalker is dead forever now." 


End file.
